10/03→
AMERICAN RENEISSANCE
Includes the 19th century; is a term coined by Mathiessen (his major work was Art and
Expression in the Age of Emerson and Whithman, published in 1941) is a movement that
lasted during the 1830's and 1860's, but the main events occured during just 5 years, where
there was published many works that let the movement florish. The father of
trascendentalism is Emerson, but we also mention Thoreau -who was the one that inspired
Ghandi-, Walt Whithman, Hawthorne and Melville, who were all important cause they
wanted to define the american identity through their own works and not europen ones.
American Renessaince is important to american history, but Mathiessen was very
challenged by overstatement and different points of view. We notice the exclusion of Emily
Dickinson to this list of important figures, just like all other women of american
Reneissance, cause they didn't believe in american superiority and exceptionalism,
something in which Mathiessen was fermly convinced.
For the social-historical background, it was very influenced by the european romanticism,
in this period was fundamental the presence of the jacksonian democracy -based on self
making, and valuing the diversity of ethnicities, places and class position- and
trascendentalism.
American Romanticism coincided with a period of national expansion and shaping of
american identity, far from Europe. The american romanticism is defined by the concept of
art as an inspiration, the spiritual and aesthetic dimension of nature and the idea that arts are
the best way to express concepts as the universal truth and the only way throughout people
found identification, so that's why the artist's role is so important, the romanticism became
so popular because of revolutionary spirit of America and the break free from the strict
religious traditions, which are the opposite to calvinism and the concept of predestination
and the impossibility of the individual to change the course of his life.
Other points in common with American democracy were individualism, the concept of
national predestination, the common research of imagination and an aesthetic/ethical values.
15/03→ Jackson was born on the frontier from an irish family of the first generation of
immigrants, he took part as a soldier in the American Revolution but when he came back his
family was dead and he found himself alone, and that's what made him so aggressive,
designed his strong temper and developed his sense of individualism, exceptionalism, the
individual, practical attitude typical of men of the frontier. He had a little education and was
mainly a soldier who substained the expansionist mouvement. He became the 7th president
of America and he fought for farmers, artisans and small businesses, he was the
emobodyment of all the citiziens who came from a generation of poor immigrants,
struggling finding their social place, he considered himself a man of the people, an outsider,
and that's why he reached the support of many common people. He brought a new concept
of democracy (cause the old one was too attached to the natives) and with his democracy he
gave equal rights to everyone, in order to convert politics into something accessible to
everyone.
The limits of the jacksonian democracy were that Jackson defined his democracy by
constant revolutions because of his controversial personality. He attacked privileged wealth,
he wanted to build a new mass political party, he fermly belived in the subjugation of native
americans as slaves and the spoiled system and substained the system of rotation in office -
in exchange of loyalty towards the President, people were awarded with government jobs-,
he assured a place in politics to everyone that helped him getting to be elected, but it was a
controversial system cause it was based off spoiling and not meritocracy that assured a
lifetime civil job; he managed to relocate natives in reserves (trail of tiers) but never took
care of the slavery aspect because he did not consider black people as slaves so it was
considered as a non existent issue. The spoil system remained legal until 1883.
During the Jacksonian Democracy he applied an expansionist mouvement which was
supposed to look as an egualitarian democracy but turned out being convinient only for the
white people; after a victory during a battle he earned pieces of land that allowed him to
relocate the native indians to another reserve in Oklahoma, for that he was called “Old
Hickory” -meaning someone tough and obstinate-.
Online documents→ Jackson was elected in 1828 and his political intensions remained the
same from previous elections but it grown the intensity, the previous ones were corrupted by
the Second Bank and could be solved through democratic processes. He was the first elected
president who came from a western country -he proclaimed himself as “Champion of
Common Men”- and Jackson's movement will outlast his presidency.
Van Buren (Jackson's successor) defined a new democratic party based on 3 of jackson's
qualities: he defended farmers and small workers, he was against special privilges of
economical elites, and wanted to offer lands to people forced further westward.
Opposing them there was the Whig Party- they favoured the economical improvement as a
valid way to prosperity; they were mainly in disagreement for the industrial revolution, the
Whigs supported it fermly, but the democrats stressed the new forms of dependence it
caused. These two political campaigns lasted until 1850s and is called the Second Party
System. In 1828 when Jackson was elected, it started a new political era but it was also
based on a rework of the American Revolution's values under the economic, religious and
geographic point of view; Jacksonian democracy was a blending of the best and worst
qualities of American society, it was a democratic system based on egalitarism but it was
always in the benefits of white men.
TRANSCENDENTALISM→ can be considered as a synonymus of Romanticism since they
both marked the American Reneissance. Transcendentalism (founded in 1836) is not a
mouvement but more a club, since it took place in a small village in New England next to
Boston but surrounded by nature, Concord, his position made it perfect for welcoming
cultivated people -who studied in Boston, Harvard- who had high minded conversation
conducting a simple way of living. The partecipants to this new Club were abolitionists,
ministers and people from Church intrigued to an unique contact with God; they even
founded a magazine, “The Dial”-by Margaret Fuller and Emerson- which dealt abolitionism,
slavery and reform efforts; it's considered the first rural artist's colony, and artists saw
themselves as fighters against conventions and for indipendence, they're outsiders.
Trascendentalists focused on a philosophical and religious point of view, they wanted to
establish a close contact with nature and God but in an individualistic way, they determined
feelings more important than reason and substained the abolition of materialism, they valued
arts and individual differences.
→Expanding and Revising of the American Reneissance: Through the years the
Mathissien's canon was reviewed, to put the literary works in a historical and political
frame, that was essential to fully understand the authors and their works. This change of
canons defined 3 different perspectives:
→the ideological analysis -authors reflected the political and social context around them
and the dominant ideas of the time, the main aspects were slavery, democracy, egalitarism,
women's place, expansionism and wars-
→ author's active engagement -they showed how they were actively engaged to the
political background debate (Thoreau and Emerson:slavery; Whitman:american
freedom/slavery; Melville:suffering of people caused by capitalism; Hawthorne:puritains)-
→ the writers did not give a personal criticism about these matters, they just talk about it in
an indirect and artistic way.